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Second language can benefit a child’s future, experts say By CARRIE WHITE East Valley Tribune MESA, Ariz. (AP) _ Ask a person if he speaks Spanish and you’ll get one of three answers: ``Yes,’’ ``No’’ or ``I had it in high school, but I don’t remember much.’’ Julie Wilson and Pat Moffat are examples of the latter. So they didn’t hesitate when their 7-year-old son, Benjamin, was offered the opportunity to participate in a kindergarten through fifth-grade dual-language program at Holdeman Elementary School in Tempe. ``This way he is learning (a second language) at the right time,’’ Wilson said. And using it. On vacation in Santa Cruz, Calif., Benjamin smiled as he listened to a Spanish TV broadcast of a soccer game. The second-grader can also speak to best buddy Jesus in his friend’s native tongue. ``We look at this as community building,’’ Wilson said. It’s also an investment in a child’s future. The state’s Hispanic population grew by 88 percent in the 1990s and now accounts for a quarter of the state’s 5.1 million people. As the state’s Hispanic population grows, so do the long-term benefits for children who are bilingual. Not only do kids learn to communicate, but they come to understand people who are different from them, said Sarah Hudelson, multicultural education professor at Arizona State University. It gives them a wider perspective of the world. It increases job opportunities and salary potential. Yet, ``Years ago, bilingualism of any sort was thought to be a cognitive disadvantage,’’ Hudelson said. ``You weren’t as smart.’’ In the early 1960s, Wallace Lambert and Richard Tucker, studying French/English bilingualism in Canada, found that on several measures of intelligence, bilingual children tested far better than monolingual children. Fred Genesee at McGill University in Quebec also came to that conclusion. ``Small children pick up a language so quickly,’’ said Gail Guntermann, ASU professor emeritus of Spanish. ``The earlier you start, the more chance you have to really learn that language.’’ It takes five to seven years of immersion in a language to be truly bilingual, said Debra Gomez, assistant superintendent of the Tempe Unified School District. Gomez heavily supports the dual-language immersion program that’s now in its sixth year at Holdeman and in its first year at Gililland Junior High School. In high school, ``most kids don’t really learn a language,’’ Gomez said. The 60-minute daily allocation just isn’t enough to achieve academic proficiency _ meaning a student can be instructed in a subject through an acquired second language. ``It’s the experience you have with a language that’s important,’’ said Gomez. At Holdeman, students are taught math, social studies, science and reading through an integrated English and Spanish program. To enter the program, children must be proficient in English and have parental approval. ``On the playground is where you see the benefits,’’ said Duke McDonald, principal of Holdeman Elementary School. There, children make immediate use of classroom instruction, testing out new words and phrases _ Spanish to English, English to Spanish. At Gililland, where the first dual-language immersion class has entered sixth grade, teacher Sara Baitling said she’s been ``pleasantly surprised’’ at the students’ proficiency. ``They are pretty close to being bilingual right now,’’ Baitling said of the 46 pupils. Her students spend one week learning traditional grade-level subjects in Spanish, then switch to English the next week. One of the problems with dual-language immersion is teachers _ few teachers are being certified for Foreign Languages in Elementary Schools because there are few opportunities for jobs _ largely because there are no teachers. It would cost $2 million in teacher salaries to implement a foreign program in the Mesa Unified School District, said Liana Clarkson, the district’s world language specialist. A video program exposing students to Spanish is available to teachers, but its use is optional and implemented at the discretion of the school principal. At the same time, Proposition 203, which mandates all students be taught English through English immersion, is making Spanish-speaking children bilingual. ``We have a lot of people who will be bilingual, who have Spanish as their native language,’’ Clarkson noted. And then there will be English-speaking children who are monolingual. Which student will be more employable 10, 15, 20 years from now? The children themselves answer that question. ``I want to be a doctor (physician),’’ said Valeria Lopez, 11, who participated in the Holdeman program and who now attends Gililland. ``I’m going to need Spanish and English to talk to patients.’’ Veronica Bailey, 11, believes she, too, will need two languages in her career path. Bailey wants to be a nurse. ``We speak English at home,’’ Bailey said. ``But I am glad I can speak both.’’ |
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